Hey, have you considered raising your Ca? I heard that might do it :wink:

I had similar problems last year Brad and did end up swapping out most of the LR as you've alluded to. I noticed a burst of growth but then it dwindled down again. I later dropped my flow rate and found that lead to a burst of growth but wasn't sustained either. I've since moved and am dealing with typical "new tank" type symptoms including browning out and slowed growth.

Have you considered changing to LED lighting? I think that's what the cool kids are using these days. Sounds trendy and trendy is always good :wink:

Just my opinion but it is hard to believe that you do not need to ad Mg.Have you tried another test kit?

I don't know much about sps but I do know others that do. Wayne (fencer) tells me you have to have fish poo for good growth and Dez told me that he dumps cups of Mg. in his tank per week and we all know his sps grow like crazy. So make sure you have some fish and start a Mg. IV :noidea: Might help.

Like i said previously mag is very important and often overlooked!

Food from fish waste?? ain't that basicanly nitrates at the end? I thought nitrates was actualy preventing sps from growing?? My bioload is extremely low with only 2 mandarins fish in a 75 gallons and I still see great growth in my sps. NO need to add more fish.

I feed coral frenzy and ReefRoids and my sps grow like crazy. I could swear I see new growth each day on one of them. I do feed a lot though (each day) because I also have filter feeders, but I have no nitrates and phosphates.

I would suggest you to try reefroids and coral frenzy and also if you can get the zeovit amino acids and coral vitalizer you will probably see some major improvement.

Your calcium is low as many other people have mentioned here.

That is a consideration, I have very few fish. I think I have a school of damsels in the sump, but I have to empty it to find out. I'm also skimpy on food, so I'll try feeding the fish more.

Nah, you know me Andrew, MH all the way!!

My stance on Mg comes from 8 years running a tank where the acros grew too fast. I never added anything, and nobody I know did either. The whole Mg trend has been the last couple of years, and while it may not be bad, it's never been needed before. That being said, I've had it tested several times and it's always near 1400.

I'll dig up an old photo to show what I used to get, doing the same thing I do now...

Here is an old pic of my last setup, this is the type of growth I got in 2 years. Not anything like I see now. And really not doing anything different, feeding, Mg, etc...

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...f/fulljune.jpg

That looks great! Do you think the sand bed had something to do with it or the city has added something to the water supply?